For Lenny / Downes

$7.49
Label
Sony Worldwide
Release Date
February 9, 2018
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      BERNSTEIN, LEONARD
    • PERFORMER
      Downes, Giddens, Hampson, Morales-Martinez, Olusola
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      February 09, 2018
    • UPC
      842840112518
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      84284011251
    • LABEL
      Sony Worldwide
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. West Side Story, Act I: Something's Coming

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Kevin Olusola, Lara Downes

    2. Anniversary for Lenny

      Composer: John Corigliano Jr.

      Performer: Lara Downes

    3. Anniversaire for Lenny

      Composer: Stephen Schwartz

      Performer: Lara Downes

    4. Romance for Lenny

      Composer: Eleonor Sandresky

      Performer: Lara Downes

    5. Iconoclasm (for Lenny)

      Composer: Michael Abels

      Performer: Lara Downes

    6. Fancy Free: Big Stuff

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    7. 4 Anniversaries: No. 2. For Johnny Mehegan

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    8. 7 Anniversaries: No. 1. For Aaron Copland

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    9. 13 Anniversaries: No. 3. For Stephen Sondheim

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    10. Evening Primrose: I Remember (arr. for piano)

      Composer: Stephen Sondheim

      Performer: Lara Downes

    11. West Side Story, Act I: Cool (arr. for clarinet and piano)

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Javier Morales-Martinez, Lara Downes

    12. Wonderful Town: Story of My Life (arr. J. Distler for piano)

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    13. Arias and Barcarolles: No. 5. Greeting (arr. L. Downes for piano)

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    14. Innocent Psalm (for the Bernstein baby)

      Composer: Marc Blitzstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    15. No. 6. For My Daughter, Nina

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    16. No. 11. For Felicia, on our 28th Birthday (and her 52nd)

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    17. So Pretty

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Rhiannon Giddens, Lara Downes

    18. Anniversary in Memoriam (for Lenny)

      Composer: Daron Aric Hagen

      Performer: Lara Downes

    19. 5 Anniversaries: No. 2. For Lucas Foss

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    20. For Lenny (Variation on New York, New York)

      Composer: Lukas Foss

      Performer: Lara Downes

    21. What Shall We Remember? (arr. for piano)

      Composer: Ricky Ian Gordon

      Performer: Lara Downes

    22. Mass: Hymn and Psalm, "A Simple Song"

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Thomas Hampson, Lara Downes

    23. Exuberance (for Lenny)

      Composer: Shulamit Ran

      Performer: Lara Downes

    24. 13 Anniversaries: No. 4. For Craig Urquhart

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes

    25. Remembering Lenny

      Composer: Craig Urquhart

      Performer: Lara Downes

    26. Goodbye Chorale (for Lenny)

      Composer: Theo Bleckmann

      Performer: Lara Downes

    27. Youth, Day, Old Age and Night (arr. L. Downes for piano)

      Composer: Ned Rorem

      Performer: Lara Downes

    28. On the Town, Act II: Some Other Time (arr. J. Distler for piano)

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Performer: Lara Downes


Lara Downes’ new album For Lenny celebrates the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein with a special friends-and-family tribute to the man behind the music. The recording features Bernstein’s aptly-named Anniversaries for Piano, new arrangements of his songs, and world premieres of works dedicated to Bernstein by leading American composers including Stephen Sondheim, John Corigliano, and Stephen Schwartz. The album is introduced by an essay from acclaimed New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik.

Taking her inspiration from Bernstein’s boundary-breaking approach to music-making, Lara has invited a diverse group of guest artists: opera legend Thomas Hampson, roots singer Rhiannon Giddens, superstar beatboxer Kevin “K.O.” Olusola (a member of the chart-topping a cappella group Pentatonix), and Mexican/American clarinet prodigy Javier Morales-Martinez.

Describing FOR LENNY, Lara says: “Leonard Bernstein reminds me of what a musician can be. Of what music can do in this world – how it can reach and teach and make things happen. Just imagine what American music was before Lenny came along, everything he changed. I’m only here at all, I think, because of the rules he broke and the doors he knocked down. Imagine the thousands of other musicians who feel the same way.”

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REVIEW:

In the midst of all of this abundance, pianist Lara Downes seems to have homed in on the sweet spot for giving this hard-working musician with a larger-than-life reputation a tribute recording that manages to be sincere without going over the top with adulation.... Downes’ recording may well have qualities that will endure long after the celebratory shouts of “Bravo!” have evaporated into the ether.

– The Rehearsal Studio (Stephen Smoliar)